Harlequin Love Inspired August 2016, Box Set 1 of 2 by Emma Miller

Author:Emma Miller
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781488022302
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2016-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

Christa’s call came through ten minutes after Dolly finally fell asleep. Grant answered the phone and sank onto his favorite recliner. “Hey, nice dress today, Captain.”

She laughed. “It’s beautiful, Grant. And that was so nice of Emily to model the gowns. This is all so weird, to be doing this halfway across the world.”

“But it’s coming together,” Grant assured her. “You were right, hiring a planner was worth every single penny. And more.”

“I’m glad. But that’s not why I called, actually.”

Something in her voice made Grant sit taller. Straighter. “Then, why? What’s up? Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. It’s just—” She breathed deep, and then said, “It’s Dad, Grant.”

“It’s what?” He couldn’t have heard her right. He hunched forward in the chair, suddenly unrelaxed.

“It’s about Dad. I’ve been talking with him.”

Surprise and anger didn’t creep up Grant’s spine. It raced. “Why? Why would you give him the time of day, Christa? He abandoned Mom, and us. You were a baby, and he walked out on you and never looked back. Why would you think he’s important enough to search him out now? Especially with Mom gone.”

She kept her voice calm, and that only made him angrier. “What if he did look back, Grant? What if he tried to be part of our lives, but couldn’t?”

“The impossibility of that leaves me speechless.” Grant stood and ran a hand through his hair, then paced the floor in quick, hard steps. “He didn’t have to leave, Christa. And then he didn’t have to stay gone. Have you seen him?” He didn’t want to ask that question, he didn’t want to appear interested. It slipped out because now and again he wondered if his father was even still alive, but never enough to check it out online.

“In Colorado, two years ago. That’s where he lives now. He’s got a very nice wife, and two kids, Mike and—”

“No. I don’t want to hear how I was casually replaced by someone else two thousand miles away. I don’t want to hear that he’s put his life together with them, while he ignored us. I watched him walk out that door thirty-three years ago, Christa. He kissed me goodbye, told me to be brave and walked away. Mom was crying, you were crying and I was supposed to be a brave five-year-old while my father walked out of our lives.” He remembered how he raced to the window and watched as his world fell apart around him. His mother’s tears, Christa’s baby wails and his father, backing out of the small driveway, onto the road, then driving away.

And he never even looked back to wave.

Oh, he remembered all right, every single second of that horrible afternoon was etched in his brain. “I can’t forgive him, Christa. Please don’t ask me to.”

She sighed and said nothing. Seconds ticked by, long and slow. “Why now, Christa? What’s brought this all up?”

“My wedding,” she whispered, and the sadness in her tone took Grant by the throat. “Mom’s gone, and I’m getting married, and I wanted my father at my wedding.

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